Overview

Violent conflict and its aftermath are pressing problems, particularly for international development initiatives. However, the results of development in conflict contexts have generally been disappointing and their preventative potential thus questionable. Available Open Access, Lives Amid Violence argues that this is because practitioners adhere to a mental model that emphasises linearity, certainty, and causality, assuming that violence is best addressed through work plans that deliver state-building, stabilisation and services. Based on ten years of multi-method research from, in, and on conflict-affected countries, this book challenges this approach. Drawing on a significant collaborative body of scholarship, this work puts forward original and generalizable conclusions about how lives amid violence persist, offering an invitation to abandon restricting mental models and to embrace creative ways of thinking and working. These include paying attention to the long-term effects of conflict on individual behaviour and decision-making, the social realities of economic life, the role service delivery plays in negotiations between citizens and states, and to creating meaningful relationships. Transformation also requires reflection and therefore the book concludes with constructive suggestions on how to practice these insights to better support those whose lives are shaped by violence. More details are available at www.transformingdevelopment.org The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com.

Full Product Details

Author:   Mareike Schomerus (Busara Center, Nairobi)
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint:   Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Dimensions:   Width: 15.60cm , Height: 2.50cm , Length: 23.40cm
Weight:   0.454kg
ISBN:  

9780755640874

ISBN 10:   075564087
Pages:   318
Publication Date:   27 June 2024
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
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Table of Contents

Quanta by Michael Onsando 1 Goodbye yellow brick road: Beyond the status quo of development in the wake of conflict 2 The problem with bricks: Why building and stabilizing went to the wall 3 Money can’t move a ton of bricks: The real currency of economic life 4 Times are a-changin’, but the tide is not turning: Why life after conflict does not automatically get better 5 Vertical columns of accelerated air: The mental landscape 6 A satellite image of the neighbourhood: How who you are matters 7 You can’t make bricks without straw: People and states 8 Mortar stronger than bricks: Connections and relationships Stories by Michael Onsando Afterword: Practicalities by Stephanie Buell and Mareike Schomerus Postface: The roots of this book: Ten years of the Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium (SLRC) by Marcus Langley and Mareike SchomerusIndex

Reviews

"""This ground-breaking book, drawing on eight years of in-depth research by the Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium (SLRC), is a clarion call for doing away with technocratic approaches to supporting the lives and livelihoods of people affected by conflict, and recognizing that development work is intensely political and must be shaped by local realities."" --Sara Pantuliano, Chief Executive at ODI, UK ""Lives Amid Violence is a profoundly important book - one that brilliantly and compassionately disrupts decades of conventional wisdom. Anyone who studies, or cares about, the survival and well-being of people who live in the midst of violent conflict will benefit from its remarkable breadth, attention to ethical nuance, and political wisdom."" --Michael L. Ross, UCLA, USA ""The critical importance of this books is captured in its main question: 'how humans live in the shadow of violence'. This substantial question is taken further by several other questions that are framing the analysis: how do we, as researchers and policy actors, know? Do we have the relevant conceptual and cognitive apparatus to deal with many of the policy challenges and failures people experience in their lives. These questions are providing much needed critical evaluation of international development policies used in post-conflict contexts. The central contribution of this critical-context analytical approach is the way it is centred on those people who are at the receiving end of these policies in different contexts, and whether their experience-based knowledge is part of the international policy thinking. This is a must-read for those who are interested in the intersections of conflict/violence, international development policy and people's wellbeing. The book is based on significant research knowledge and policy experiences within multiple development policy contexts. It provides theoretically informed critical analysis of development policy practice in different and differentiated conflict/post conflict contexts."" --Hakan Seckinelgin, Associate Professor/Reader in International Social Policy, LSE', UK ""Schomerus brings our attention to the most difficult challenges vexing development today, providing some useful ways forward for doing just that. It is a personal piece, written with the authors voice and informed by the authors experience, yet readers will find it applies nearly universally in the most challenging places where they work. I expect this book will become a staple, kept handy by development professionals who want to have real impact. My copy will soon be dogeared from frequent review. I'm looking forward to rereading it many times in the future."" --Dr Gary Milante, Programme Director, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute ""One of the wisest books I've read in a long time ... [The] research contributes, among other things, lots of great illustrative examples from around the world ... [A] brilliant reflection on the power and stickiness of 'mental models' in the aid business [and] a significant book."" --From Poverty to Power ""Using her wealth of experience of working in and with people who continue to live amidst violence, Schomerus provides readers a new framework for why development is not working in fragile places and how by shifting our mental model about how development works, we may craft a new path forward."" --Rebecca Wolfe, Harris School for Public Policy, University of Chicago, USA"

Author Information

Mareike Schomerus, (PhD, London School of Economics and Political Science) is Vice President at the Busara Center in Nairobi. Her research asks questions about international development, about violence, and about how best to acquire a deeper understanding of the invisible factors that shape today’s complex challenges and violent conflicts. Her writing is published in academic journals, reports, mass media, and in various books. In addition to her previous roles as Director of Programme Politics and Governance at ODI in London and Research Director of the Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium, also at ODI, she has advised numerous international development and peacebuilding organizations.

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